Special Baking Forms

If you would like to buy the special baking shells for nuts please let me know. I will have a full batch of these at the end of November.

Cupcakes for kids

Danube Waves Cake (aka Fale Dunaju)

This is one of my favourite cakes : )

Photo provided by Google Images

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 150 g caster sugar
• 150 ml oil
• 150 ml milk
• 2 cups plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbs cocoa
• 2 tbs milk
• 350 g sour cherries (fresh, from syrup or frozen)

In a large bowl whisk egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form; gradually add sugar, beating untill dissolved after additions. Add egg yolks, still beating. Gradually add oil, still beating.

In another bowl sift flour with baking powder. Fold the dry ingredients into egg mixture alternating with the milk. Mix until smooth; don't overmix.

Prepare 33 x 20 baking tin, line with parchment paper.

Spread half of the batter in the bottom of the prepared baking sheet. Stir the cocoa powder and 2 tablespoon of milk into the remaining batter just until blended. Spread evenly over the white layer. Sprinkle cherries evenly over the top of the cake batter.

Bake at 180 degrees C for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool.

Buttercream:

• 400 ml milk
• 40 g vanilla custard powder
• 2 Tbs sugar
• 2 Tbs lemon juice
• 250 g butter, softened

In a small bowl, whisk together the custard powder and sugar. Heat the milk in a small saucepan just until hot but not boiling. Whisk in the custard mixture, and bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Let it cool.

Cream softened butter. Add the custard spoon by spoon and mix well. Spread the buttercream on top of the cool cake and flatten the cream. Refrigerate until firm.

Chocolate topping:

• 200 g plain chocolate
• 70 g butter

Melt chocolate and butter and put it on the butter cream. Flatten it with a knife.

Nut cookies (also known as "orzeszki")

Components (for approximately 60 pieces)

The dough:
- 250 g wheat flour
- 150 g butter or margarine
- 120 g granulated sugar
- 1 spoon of dark cocoa
- 1 egg

Cream:
- 100 g of crushed walnuts
- 1/3 cup of milk
- 150 g butter
- 120 g granulated sugar
- 30 g of alcohol (your favourite flavour that will go with the nut taste)

Mix all the ingrediets to make the dough.  Press it until it becomes one unit, nice and soft.

Spread the dough into the special baking shells :

Bake for 15 minutes at 180 deg Celsius (350 Fahrenheit)

When shells are cold stuff them with the cream.

To make the cream, warm the milk and mix it with crushed walnuts, wait until the mixture becomes cold next add sugar and butter.  You may want to skip the alcohol if you are planning to serve the cookies to kids : )

Enjoy!

Wii - Super Mario Shortbread Cookies

This is a hit with the kids.  I baked a regular shortbread cookies and created stencils with Mario game characters. To make it more colorful the dough was devided into three pieces and two of them got few drops of colored food gel. I used blue and red colors, but after baking, the cookies came out orange and green : ) Go and figure that one out ; )

Shortbreads:

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar

1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanila extract

 Icing

1 cup of icing sugar

1 spoon of cocoa powder

3 spoons of warm water

Shortbreads: In a separate bowl whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside.

In the bowl beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C)

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough into a 1/4 inch (.6 cm) thick circle. Cut into rounds or other shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter. Place on the prepared baking sheets and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. (This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked.) Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until cookies are very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack 

Icing: Mix all ingredients together. Spread on a cookie using stencils.  Icing dries up in few minutes.

Banana Split Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cups of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 4 medium mashed bananas-about 11/2 to 2 cuos
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Baking Instructions

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees
2. Fill 12 cupcake tins with paper or foil liners
3. In large mixing bowl combine flour,sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add in the butter, bananas, eggs, and vanilla and mix well with mixer at medium speed, for approximately 2 minutes
5. Fill cupcake tins
6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Tiyr banana cupcakes will be done when a toothpick comes out clean.

Top the cupcakes with vanila icing or whipped cream and chocolate.  You may put a cherry or a strawberry at the top and/or sprinkle with nuts.

The Krowka Cake

The Dough

3 cups of flour

10 dag butter

4 spoons of honey 

vanilla sugar

½ cup of granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda 

Cream I ½ litre 30% cream
2 spoons of sugar
vanilla sugar

2 pouches of "smietan-fix" (made by Dr Oetker, cream stabilizer)

Cream II:
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
20 dag walnuts

Making the cake:

Mix together all the ingredients for the dough until they become one piece, and then divide the dough into three equal parts. Spread each part on a cooking sheet and insert it into a warm oven. Bake for about 10 minutes at 170 ° C. Allow to Cool.

Next make the white cream by whipping together all the ingredients from Cream I

When cream is ready spread it between the baked dough pieces.

In a pot of water boil an unopened can of milk for about 2 hours. Then remove the water and leave the can out for about 1 hour to cool. When cold, spread it on the top of the cake and sprinkle with the nuts. You can cut the nuts to whatever size you like.

Cool the whole cake in the refrigerator. The cake is best after it has been in the fridge for 24 hours.